A bus driver involved in a devastating highway crash in Virginia on Friday morning has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. The incident resulted in at least five deaths and nearly four dozen injuries. Virginia State Police identified the driver as 48-year-old Jing S. Dong from Staten Island, New York. Additional charges are expected as investigations continue.
The crash occurred around 2:35 a.m. on Interstate 95 in Stafford County. According to police, the bus did not slow for traffic and collided with six vehicles. Initially, it struck a Chevrolet Suburban, leading to a chain reaction that involved an Acura SUV along with other vehicles. Tragically, four individuals in the Acura lost their lives, as did one person in the Suburban.
The victims from the Acura, which caught fire after the collision, were identified by police as members of a family from Greenfield, Massachusetts. The family, consisting of 45-year-old Dmitri Doncev, his 44-year-old wife Ecterina, their 13-year-old daughter Emily, and 7-year-old son Mark, were travelling to a wedding in South Carolina. Priscilla Mafalda, 25, from Worcester, Massachusetts, was the person who died in the Suburban.
Authorities reported that 44 other individuals were taken to local hospitals, with three sustaining critical injuries. At the time of the accident, 34 passengers were aboard the bus.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the southbound lane traffic was slowing near a work zone, but the bus did not decelerate. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is also examining the crash. The bus, operated by E&P Travel of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, was en route from New York to North Carolina.
“It seems fairly clear that if there was any braking, there wasn’t much because of the speed and the severity of the collision,” NTSB member Tom Chapman stated during a briefing.
Both state police and the NTSB are investigating the driver’s actions prior to the crash. The NTSB is conducting a standard 72-hour look-back, reviewing the driver’s activities leading up to the incident. This includes assessing potential factors like sleep, distractions, and substance use.